Baptisms at New Community Church, Bangkok

Dear friends,
Yesterday we saw three women and five children receive baptism. What an encouragement to see these women publically confessing their faith and also asking God's blessing on the lives of their children!
These are not in correct order (had some technical difficulties).
First, we have Nong Phet (with his mom, P'Wi).

















Then, Nong Phet's sister, Faa.
































Then, Nong Mina...P'Pawn and P'Chai's baby girl.


























Then Phough Jai, daughter of P'Geek.



















Then Phough Jai's brother, Dur, son of P'Geek.

P'Wi

Fon

P'Geek, below.

Ajarn (Dr) Natee explaining what baptism is, pictured with the three women, Fon, P'Geek and P'Wi.

The parents with their children.

Praise the Lord with us! And, please pray for these families that are seeking to grow in Christ. Pray for the children that they would grow up to be bold believers of Jesus, serving Him with all that they are. Thank you for your faithful prayers for the Thai people...God is buiding His kingdom, praise His name!

meeting Aunt Lynne

A couple weeks ago, Paul's great aunt was here for a few days to visit Children's Christian Fund. The ministry had her time pretty full but we found an afternoon (the day before she left) to spend some time together. It was a lot of fun to get to know her and hear her impressions of Thailand. She left less than a week before the airport closed and I am so thankful she didn't get stuck in all that. Here are some pictures from our time together...

Aunt Lynne brought goodies for us and one special treat were these markers.

She also passed along this cute mobile for Children's Christian Fund. The kids really enjoy it.

Christmas Cup 2008

PJ's footballing skills are continuing to progress although today the birds on the pitch distracted him from the game some! His team is the Hammers (he likes to think it's a shortened version for Hammerhead shark!). Today, they had the Christmas Cup. The mini league played so well this morning and it was a beautiful morning in Thailand for football. It was cool and overcast(Adele and Calvin were in long sleeves and Paul and I wished we had brought ours along too!) and the kids played for 1 and 1/2 hours. =) It was great, but they were definitely getting tired by the last match. Anyway, here is PJ's team before their first game. Not sure what is being discussed but it must've been interesting! By the way, this is an international league...so some of the kids are Thai, German, British, Indian...and that is just on PJ's team!

Here they are in action.



And, the Hammers came in 2nd Place! PJ is SO very proud of his trophy. They also gave each footballer an ice cream. Yum-yum. Way to go Hammers!

Here are all the mini league division players.

And the last picture is with PJ's Coach, Dave and his son, "Sun."

Catching Up

Last week, we stole away to the beach town of Hua Hin for a couple days. It was beautiful weather (one day it was so cold we didn't even go swimming in the pool!) and the kiddos enjoyed the sand and surf.

A few weeks back I took the kids to the park and when Adele's feet touched the sand there she screamed and I thought "uh oh, not a good sign for the beach." But, she LOVED it...as witness!

Calvin enjoyed his time as well.

I have a funny story to share. When we were away was when the airport was seiged by the anti-government protesters but we were clueless. We didn't know anything about it. So, we're eating at a restuarant our last night in Hua Hin and one of the waitress's asks me if I am afraid about all that is happening. I tell her no, I'm not afraid because it's downtown and we live out near the new airport!!! She then asked me again, "you live near the new airport" and I said,"Yeah, really far from all that so there's no need to fear." Later as I was sharing this with Paul we got a really good laugh out of it becuase she probably thought I was off my rocker! I also should have said that I don't fear because I trust God but it just didn't even come to my mind to say that.


PJ playing in the surf.

And, off the subject a bit, we did homeschool Monday afternoon outside. The weather was so lovely and cool. I think it was probably in the 70s but I am not sure. PJ enjoyed the change in environment. =)

Catching Up: Campus Thanksgiving Party

Life was busy the last couple weeks in November, so that is why these are a bit outdated.










We had a campus Thanksgiving party the Friday before Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun and we saw lots of people from different "cliques" at the campus come. In all (including MTW missionaries and staff) we had 36 people here at our house. We did BBQ (which is always a big hit, especially if Yu makes spicy sauce, naam jeem). We played games and enjoyed each others company. Thank you for praying for that night and please continue to pray for these young men and women.

(First pic, Paul and Avi skewering squid for the BBQ; Second pic, our prep team having lunch together).
Avi (the guy pictured with Paul in the first picture) is another story all to his own. He is actually here with YWAM until the end of January. I believe Dave met him somehow and invited him to English worship. He is Indian and speaks English very well. Anyway, Avi has some extra time on his hands so he is helping our team out in different ways. He's been an encouragement to get to know as he has suffered for his faith in India but it surely doesn't stop him. Please pray for Avi as he ministers here. He's here to learn about cross cultural ministry thru YWAM.





Another encouraging sign at this party was the leadership Thai Christians took. Here we have Huu (standing up with green shirt on) and Max (sitting next to her with red shirt) leading everyone in a game of Maffia. They loved this game.








And, Paul had some "games" planned too. The object of this game was to see who could blow the raw egg into the other person's mouth the fastest. (Pat, the guy on the right won!) The Thais weren't too eager to try this one out!!!

And, perhaps the thing that got me the most excited about the whole night was this guy's shirt! It says,

"NITTANY LIONS

PENN STATE UNIVERSITY"

Need I say more???? When I saw this I about flipped. Of course, he had no idea what his shirt said but I explained to him why I got so excited when I saw it. You never know what you're going to see here! And, no, he's not high, the smoke from the BBQ outside got in his eyes. GO PENN STATE!

*for those of you not familiar with central pennsylvania, I will enlighten you. Penn State is about a 20 minute drive from my parent's house, thus making my little hometown die hard Penn State fans!

catching up part 2; Paul's birthday

Paul also recently had a birthday. (He's even older than me; something I don't let him forget!!!) So, once again, we waited until our day off to celebrate. I made Paul a cherry pie (one of his favorite). This year, PJ was so much fun to watch preparing Daddy's gifts. By the way, I think PJ has the same knack at getting/creating gifts he knows others will really enjoy. So, PJ made Paul several lego trucks, boats, etc. He was very proud of his workmanship...and of course, Paul was too. PJ also drew him some birthday "cards" with drawings of dinosaurs and other animals. It was very sweet. It's been fun to talk about gift giving with him and to see him really enjoy making things and giving them away. So, as I alluded to earlier, I am a horrible gift giver. I had some ideas in mind for what I wanted to get Paul, but after searching malls and markets came up with nothing and so, he went out and got himself his gift!!! (A bag to put his golf clubs in for when we travel). I felt (and still do) horrible...but at least he got a pie! =)

Paul and his three whippersnappers.

PJ's Birthday greetings

It reads "HAPAE BRTHDAY LOVE, PJ" (not edited)

And, PJ's lego cars/boat he built for Daddy. (unfortunately they have already been reformed into other cars/boats!)

Birthday happenings

I had a great birthday. To start, my birthday fell on our day off so Paul gave me a morning to sleep in! That is always nice! And, then we did some celebrating at lunch time. Paul got me this book, which I have been hinting at for some weeks now. =) And, he got me a beautiful painting of a Thai village (but also looks like it could be in Africa) and a Thai tissue box holder and a really, really, really cute pencil with a frog on it. I must get pics of these things on this blog. I often feel badly for Paul because he married me...because I am just not a great gift giver. But, Paul, on the other hand always seems to know what a person will enjoy. I often go to him for ideas for friends, family, etc. He just knows what people like and his ideas are always so unique. Anyway, the book is about having a "greener" Christmas. The author lives in Britain so some of the recipes are truly British but much of the book is simple crafty ideas using reused, recycled objects. I've been pouring over it the past few days thinking of what I have here in our house that I could "whip" up.



The rest of my birthday we decorated our Christmas tree, listened to Christmas music and then our friend Catherine took me out for dinner and a show! It was great. One of the international schools was having their fall musical and they were doing "The Wizard of Oz." So, we went and enjoyed this timeless story. I need to say that these high schoolers had beautiful voices and good acting too. It is always interesting to me to watch a "western" play or movie with Asian actors and in an Asian setting. For example, when the tornado came ripping thru Kansas, instead of Dorothy's uncle yelling, "a twister is coming" he says, "a cyclone is coming!!!" It made me chuckle...your average Asian wouldn't know what a tornado or twister is...thus the change. =)

I also want to say "thank you" to all who sent e-cards and well wishes for my big 3-0. Yikes! I might as well get used to it, huh?! It was a great day.

noises in the night

It was 3AM. Adele woke up crying for a bottle, I groggily made her one. As I was leaving her room, I heard a noise outside on the street. It sounded like someone messing with our trash can, or a neighbor's perhaps...should I take a peek out the front bedroom window and see what was happening outside? I bravely walked into the front room not sure what I would see when I pulled back the curtain. I looked down onto the street...nobody, just our blue trash can overturned and our trash all over the street...I was mortified. What a mess we will have to clean in the morning! I wonder what caused this mess. A "soi" dog or a mean hearted Thai person who doesn't like us? I am confused and a bit scared,the fact that it's the middle of the night doesn't help! Then I head back toward our bedroom, I hear a noise again though so I pause before opening our bedroom door. I ponder, should I go and take a peek again? There is definitely someone out there right now, in front of our home, doing who knows what! I am a bit scared but somehow gather the courage to go and take a peek again. I look down onto the street and there he is. He has a cart dolly and on it sits a barrel. He proceeds to go through the trash spilled out onto the street and collects what is recyclable placing those items in his barrel and putting the non-recyclables back into our trash can. I pray for him. I pray God would bless him. I know it sounds absurd but I purposefully don't take our recyclables to the recycling center (yes, they do have them here) because I have known for some time that the poorer folks of this nation make a living by getting those recyclables and exchanging them for money. I am humbled as I watch this man make his living. I am thankful that in some convoluted and weird way I can help him do it. My heart at ease, I go back to sleep praying for the "recycling man".

On a side note but also goes along with the title of this post, the 8 days the airport was closed there was a quiet about our house at night that we've never known. Our house sits in a flight path and so often around 10PM we start hearing flights taking off or landing for most the night. It's become a background noise and doesn't keep us awake but I sure did notice the noise missing. It's amazing how adapted we become to our environments!!!

[A Thai recycling center in Ram 2]

Proclaiming the Prince of Peace

I turned 30 yesterday. Wow, it seems pretty impossible that I am 30 already! Sometimes I still feel like a kid but then when I get around the younger crowd, I realize that, yes, I am 30 and growing older!!!

Monday, we had mom's group and they surprised me with a beautiful birthday cake. I was most definitely surprised and blessed by their kindness towards me. It's so neat to see God building community among us. Thanks to all who were praying and continue to pray for these women.

I just have to give a shout out to Rachel. Rachel is an intern with us. She's pictured with little TonNaam in the second picture. Every other Monday Rachel comes to mom's group to help with crowd control for the little ones that come. The kids LOVE her and we moms really appreciate her service to us as well. Thank you Rachel!!!

P'Pawn (third picture) led our group on Monday. She is highly involved in our ministries handicrafts ministry and so she led us in card making. The women really seemed to enjoy the craft and for those who felt not very confident had their confidence boosted when they saw they could make these cute little Christmas cards! It is always interesting to me to see how the Thai Christians bring up Christianity. After eating our birthday cake, P'Pawn stood up and asked if anyone knew why the whole world celebrates Christmas. Silence. No one answered. Then she proceeded to ask each woman directly "P'...do you know why?" Each and everyone said, "I don't know" (in Thai of course). It always blows me away when I hear how little Thais truly know the story of Christ. So, P'Pawn proceeded to share the story of a humble girl who was special in God's sight who was miraculously with child, the Christ child who would take away the sin of the world. It was beautiful to hear her proclaim and it was beautiful to see the women intent on listening to her words. Praise the Lord for this opportunity. And, pray with us as we meet again on the 15th where P'Bee will share the rest of the story. =) Pray for God's Word to fall on fertile hearts.

reflecting

We've been here for almost 3 1/2 years. Somedays it feels like just yesterday we boarded that LONG flight with our little 2 year old to come to this foreign land and other days it feels like we've been here several years. When I think about our growing family, I realize that we've been here a while and that I've changed, our family has changed and things in the States have changed but God has NOT changed! Praise His name! I remember about one or two months into language learning in Lopburi, Thailand I had the thought "FOUR YEARS! What were we thinking?????!!! I can't survive this for FOUR YEARS" But, God gently reminded me then to take one day at a time and not think about it as "FOUR YEARS!" And, now almost four years later, it has flown by. Those first six months were rough, I am not going to lie. (you can read my posts from that time if you don't believe me!) And, we've had our moments since then. It's just that those moments get fewer and farther between, again, praise the Lord! He truly does give grace to sustain us in each and every situation He calls us to. I think of the many, many missionaries who have served here in Thailand but also all over the world for their entire lives and four years to them is a drop in the bucket! I feel like a whiny little brat when I think of the their track record compared to mine!

My parents recently (this morning!) sent these pictures of their home and consequently the only home I knew growing up. I LOVE this house. When I saw the snow picture (first snow of this year) I teared seeing that place of sweet warmth, knowing that inside I never once was COLD because of the warm coal fire heating it up but more because of the warm love my mom and dad lavished upon me. How fortunate to have grown up there in small town, America and to have parents who loved me enough to set limits on my life and teach me discipline, but more importantly they taught me the importance of trusting God in good and bad times, knowing that God works all things out for His glory and our good and to have a fear of our Lord and to depend on Him in prayer for everything and perhaps mostly, I learned to love, to really love others, even when it costs us a lot and causes us a lot of hurt and pain, we are called, as Christians to love. Are they perfect? No, they would be the first to tell you that. But, they love the Lord and they seek to love others with His love.

So, how does our being here nearly 3 1/2 years and my home come together? Well, as many of you probably know, we are scheduled for furlough in about six months time...and these pictures make me VERY excited to enter this home of sweet rest and familiarity where they know me so well, so well that I can be my silly self and no one cares because they know "that's Crystal." =) It makes me excited to think of my children playing in the snow outside the warm walls of their grandparent's home, building snow forts and having snowball fights and when they're done they will come inside and take off all their cold, wet clothes and thaw out with a cup of hot cocoa, telling all the battles fought outside in the snow. Yes, I am excited. I admit it! There will be many firsts for our kids in the States and though we will miss Thailand terribly, there is much to look forward to. It might be early, but would you please start praying for us for this transition coming up in our lives. I know kids are resilient and they are going to do great, but maybe, you could pray for Paul and me?!

*thanks to mom and dad for the pics of the house in fall and winter. we all LOVE them!

Pumpkin Pie Recipe

I had a request over at Coffee Girl Confessions for my pumpkin pie recipe. I can't take the credit for it, it comes from my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook that Paul gave me our second Christmas together (we joke and say it was really a gift for himself!) Anyway, before I get to the pie recipe I will tell you how I do "up" my pumpkin. Since we can't get canned pumpkin here (or if we can it would cost more than I can stomach to spend on it) I make my own. I am not sure what kind of pumpkins you have in your part of the world but we have Thai pumpkins and they don't LOOK at all like an "american" pumpkin but they sure taste YUMMY! So, I first buy a pumpkin (or part of a pumpkin) and cut it up and scoop all the seeds out (and roast them for the kiddos) and then I place said pumpkin in my crock pot. I let it cook awhile until it's nice and soft and done. I scoop the meat of the pumpkin out into a bowl and mash it up a bit and voila...it's ready to go into your pie. (By the way, the amount shown in the crockpot in the picture is enough for two pies).

(picture of pies before baking)

So, here's the recipe from Betty Crocker.

Pat in the pan oil pastry (see directions below)

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1 can (16 oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

1. Heat over to 425. Make pastry.

2. Beat eggs slightly in medium bowl. Beat in remaining ingredients.

3. Pour filling into pie crust.

4. Bake 15 mins. Reduce oven temp to 350. Bake about 45 mins longer or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack 2 hours.

For Pat-in-the-pan oil pastry (this is SO easy!):

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons cold water

1. Mix flour, salt and oil until all flour is moistened. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 Tbsp at a time, tossing with fork until all water is absorbed.

2. Gather pastry into a ball. Press in bottom and up side of pie plate, 9x1 1/4 inches; flute.

3. Fill and bake as directed.

ENJOY!

Please exercise your RIGHT to VOTE!

Hey Y'all, PLEASE, please, PLEASE go over to Coffee Girl Confessions blog and vote for ME so I can win some Christmas baking supplies. CoffeeGirl Confessions is a blog for missionary women by missionary women. You can vote for me on the side bar. You can read what I submitted (pretty much my earlier post on here).
Thanks! If I don't win, it's not a big deal...so don't fret for me...it's just something fun to do!

We give thanks...

It's that time of year...when life gets crazy busy because of all the wonderful opportunities we have to share Christ Jesus with those around us! This morning we had Mom's Group and I just want to thank GOD and thank all of you who faithfully pray for this ministry. We always have such a good time together and I just love that God is forming this group in His way and in His time. We give Him the glory for it. So, I made some pumpkin pies on Saturday for today (the first pic, sorry that it's such a bad shot, but hey, I do my best!). And, since I was the one "in charge" for this week I decided to do a Thanksgiving theme. We asked each of the women to bring a side and we would supply the Som Tam (spicy papaya salad), so that pretty much translated as everyone brought fruit, drinks and two women brought a yummy Thai dessert.









Once we all gathered we got the fruit cut up began to eat our meal. I shared that today was special to Americans because we were going to share with them about our holiday of Thanksgivign and then P'Bee prayed for the food.

We ate and ate and ate (!). And towards the end I began to share the story of Thanksgiving using the book you see in my hand for a picture aid. I then asked them to each write what they are thankful for and why on a small leaf cutout I made and then we shared. I thought they all of them would say they were thankful for their families but a couple of them surprised me and said that they were thankful for Mom's Group! What a blessing to hear...and I know, they might have just been saying it to be nice, but I like to think they really meant it. One lady said that she loves being around Christians at our office and at Mom's Group. So, please KEEP praying! God is doing something in these women's lives and I am just in awe at His work.

As we wrapped up the day of giving thanks I shared with them that it's important to thank God especially when we aren't feeling like our calling as wives and mother's is that great. I am not sure they totally understood but hopefully, one day they will. Their leaves are pictured there. Praise God with us as we see Him at work giving these women desire to be in community with us.

Please pray for our next meeting (December 1). P'Pawn will be leading us in Christmas card making. Pray for her as she prepares to share some of the Christmas story as well as this craft. Pray for our friends' hearts to be opened and that they would also attend our Christmas outreach thru the church and that they would hear the Word of God and believe.

Thank you!

And, on the note of prayer, please continue to pray for us this week. We have another Thanksgiving "get together" for the campus group here at our house Friday night. Pray for all of our preparations and pray for many to come, taste and see that our Lord is good. Thanks so much.

Free Gift with Purchase

Last week I went grocery shopping and since we were completely out of Peanut Butter, I bought some more. (seen in the picture) So, about 10 minutes AFTER I bought the peanut butter I was in the baby formula aisle and as always there were probably five employees (for the baby formula companies) standing in the aisle (I've never been able to figure out why there are always so many formula employees standing in aisles...I guess baby formula is a big seller here). Anyway, I had a cart FULL of stuff since it had been a while since I had gone grocery shopping and I noticed these employees really checking out what was in my cart. I noticed it and thought it a bit strange but really didn't think too much of it since because I knew I had a cart FULL and they were probably just curious as to what this foreigner was buying up that fills a cart! So, I proceed to leave that aisle and go down the coffee aisle to get our coffee for the week and one of the girls comes running after me, "khough tote kha, khough tote kha" (thai for "excuse me"). I stop and turn around and she's trying to hand me these two beautiful plates. I am sure I looked at her like she was crazy knowing that I didn't want to buy these two plates but then she proceeds to tell me that I bought peanut butter and right now when one buys peanut butter there's a free gift of two plates! Well, how about that? And, they are really nice. They're heavy and perfect for serving fruit or other Thai dishes on. It's the little things that keep life here interesting!

spaghetti face

Digging in!

She's still not walking but she does stand up all on her own (without holding on) so it won't be long before those first steps come.

Thanksgiving play

The house smells like pumpkin spice (thanks to our moms!) and the first batch of pumpkin is cooked and ready for baking pumpkin pies (for Moms group on Monday). The boys have been getting their Thanksgiving education from the Peanuts "The Mayflower Voyagers" cartoon...I know, I am such a bad mom...but it's SO cute and well done! We have read one book on the subject (one I found at a used English bookshop that JUST opened in our area!). And, so with all the festivities I decided that this would be the year we would have some "dress up" fun. So, PJ and I set to work to make a pilgrim hat and an Indian headdress (or something like it, anyway!).

The idea for the pilgrim hat came from none other than Family Fun, of course! You are supposed to use black construction paper but of course getting stuff like that here is not easy, so I used white and had PJ color it. =)

I'm also gearing up for Christmas, trying to get gifts made early this year and also trying to think of things to make instead of buying gifts. I have some great ideas bobbing around in my head for the kiddos...but for adults I am having some trouble. Any ideas? Remember, I live in a country where craft supplies are not the easiest to find (they're here you just have to know which shop to find each supply in!).

For some time I've wanted to simplify Christmas gift giving...especially within our little family of five but each year I don't plan well and then at last it's the last minute and I'm scrambling to Lotus (a store similar to Walmart but not at all the same!) to try to find something to give the kids. This year, my desire has been compounded by our nightly readings of "The Little House on the Prairie" series in which the girls Laura and Mary are so thankful for just a piece of candy and a tin cup for Christmas! So, I have some fun ideas for the kiddos and looking forward to getting started...after Thanksgiving on the big projects and maybe today on the smaller ones!

another update on Calvin's eye

Calvin had his second follow up appointment today regarding his eye. The tearing is getting less but it's still happening. The doc informed us today that it could take up to 3 months to completely stop! So, please keep praying for healing and for patience for us and for Calvin. He deals with the massaging of his eye pretty well, but I am sure it gets old! (We have to massage it 1-2 times every two hours.) Today the doc did a little test today to see if things are working normally. He put some orange dye in Calvin's eye and then the dye ran down into his mouth and nose. He then saw the ENT and the ENT saw the dye in his nose...so this is great news and encouraging, thank you to all of you who are praying for Calvin and his eye.

Opening Stanza from Choruses from "The Rock"

The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven,The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit.

O perpetual revolution of configured stars,

O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,

O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying

The endless cycle of idea and action, Endless invention, endless experiment,

Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;

Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;

Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.

All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,

All our ignorance brings us nearer to death, But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.

Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries

Bring us farther from GOD and nearer to the Dust.

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), "The Rock" (1934)